Sistah Pat

I’m really tired this morning! I’m not sure what happened last night. I sat in the spa a few minutes, came in and cleaned up from my dinner, laid out my clothes for today, and then it was midnight! That makes 5:00 a.m. come awfully early! It’s going to be a killer day. I thought about it when I was in the spa last night and getting the exercise in is not going to be easy. Canceled my doctor’s appointment because that was just pushing it way too much but it’s still going to be tough. I’ve got to work and then leave after school to bring the boys home. I’ll only have an hour or so before I have to head back to school and then work the ROTC dinner from 4:30 to 8:00. That’ll put me home around 8:30 and I’ll do a workout in the pool for 45 minutes which should have me finishing up around 9:30 or so. Hopefully, I can hit the bed early tonight. If I chug a couple of Tylenol PMs, I should be able to get a good night’s sleep. Right now, it’s off to the showers.

6:00 a.m. - The scales are showing 166.5 this morning and I’m happy with that. After yesterday’s big drop, I expected to weigh in around 167.5 this morning so I’m delighted that it’s where it is.

9:00 p.m. - I think we can call this an “Escalante Day”. That is, I’m not sure if I beat the day or the day beat me. I did what I set out to do but the obstacles were huge and have left me exhausted. I worked all day and then left school at 2:45 to go pick up the Baked Ziti and bread. Today was really busy and I realized there was no way I was going to be able to go till after work which meant I wouldn’t get to come home at all. I called DH and told him he would have to pick up Andrew and I would keep Steven with me.  Drove across town to where DS works and got the ziti, went to Walmart and got 12 loaves of bread and Country Crock (with a free dinner, you don’t get real butter!) By the time I got back to school, it was 4:00 and the dinner started at 6:00.

DS prepared 5 huge trays of ziti and I had to get all of them loaded into the huge convection ovens at school. Of course, the trays were too big and I had to remove every other rack to get them all in. Got that going and started on the bread. I sliced all the bread but got some of the ROTC cadets to butter em up and then I had to get all 12 loaves going in another oven. As soon as I got all that done, I started on the salad. I had huge bags of spring mix and a romaine mix but I had to slice and add cucumbers, grape tomatoes and croutons. Got that done and started slicing the four sheet cakes. As soon as I finished that, Sarge asked me if I would speak to the parents for a few minutes after the principal and I agreed. Got the plates, plastic ware, napkins, cups and ice ready and then realized the timers were going off and the ziti was ready to come out of the oven. To make a long story a little shorter…everything was organized and ready to go but I didn’t have a minute to sit down.

People started arriving, the major spoke, the principal spoke, and then it was my turn. Don’t know what happened, maybe it was hormones, maybe it was exhaustion, maybe it was just me, but I started talking to parents about how I’ve seen the ROTC take kids who need a little discipline and teach them self control and restraint and I’ve seen them take kids who are shy and withdrawn and give them the confidence and self-esteem they need to be successful and, all of a sudden, I broke down and started crying! I was mortified! I was all choked up and I couldn’t speak. Finally, I got myself under control enough to say, “Well, I guess you can see how I feel about the program! What do you say we let these cadets serve us some dinner?” They all clapped and I turned away and I was totally embarrassed! I guess it was okay…Major W. and Sarge said if anything could get us some assistance, that oughta do it! Several parents told me they were really touched and I was thinking, “No, I’m the one that’s a little touched!” At any rate…it finally ended and I ate a tiny bit of ziti (maybe a cup) and some salad without dressing because Sarge got the dressing and none of it was low-fat.

Then came cleanup! I was so tired and the kids were more than willing to do the actual labor but I had to supervise them to make sure the cafeteria was left the way we found it. I finally got out of there and home at 8:00. I only had one more thing to do and that was to swim my laps.

Went out to the pool and discovered that DH put the solar cover on it. I was so tempted to give up. I really, really wanted to quit but I got Steven to help me remove the cover and swam laps for 45 minutes. I noticed that my tailbone is really hurting! Probably TMI but it hurts, dammit! Probably from wearing cute little Barbie shoes all day and being on my feet non-stop.

So there we are. It was a totally exhausting and trying day but it’s done and it was perfect, dammit! Now, I’m going to take a pain pill, sleep with the heating pad and try to recouperate.